{"dataset":{"slug":"neo-operations","title":"NEO Operations & Risk Scales","description":"The near-Earth-object operations pipeline — discovery, orbit determination, characterization, impact monitoring, risk assessment — and the Torino and Palermo risk scales.","version":"1.0.0","lastGenerated":"2026-06-29","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","entityCount":10,"sources":["nasa"]},"entities":[{"id":"defense_stage:characterization","name":"Characterization","type":"defense_stage","domain":"science","description":"Determining what an object is — its size, shape, spin, and composition — from light curves, radar, spectra, and, for a few, spacecraft visits. Hera is en route to survey the asteroid DART struck, to learn how a deflection actually worked.","entryPath":"/planetary-defense/characterization"},{"id":"defense_stage:decision-and-planning","name":"Decision & Mission Planning","type":"defense_stage","domain":"science","description":"If an object were found on a collision course with enough warning, agencies and governments would decide on a response — and plan the reconnaissance and deflection mission it would require. NEO Surveyor is being built to give that warning decades ahead.","entryPath":"/planetary-defense/decision-and-planning"},{"id":"defense_stage:deflection","name":"Deflection","type":"defense_stage","domain":"science","description":"The last stage — actually changing an asteroid's orbit so it misses the Earth. DART showed a kinetic impactor works; a gravity tractor, ion beam, or, as a last resort, a nuclear device are other options, chosen by how much warning time is available.","entryPath":"/planetary-defense/deflection"},{"id":"defense_stage:impact-monitoring","name":"Impact Monitoring","type":"defense_stage","domain":"science","description":"Automatic systems at CNEOS and ESA continuously propagate every known orbit forward for a century or more, flagging any that could approach Earth. Apophis was tracked this way until observations ruled out an impact for the next century.","entryPath":"/planetary-defense/impact-monitoring"},{"id":"defense_stage:neo-discovery","name":"NEO Discovery","type":"defense_stage","domain":"science","description":"Dedicated survey telescopes scan the sky night after night for moving points of light — the near-Earth asteroids and comets. Catalina, Pan-STARRS, and ATLAS lead the search from the ground, and the Rubin Observatory will transform it.","entryPath":"/planetary-defense/neo-discovery"},{"id":"defense_stage:orbit-determination","name":"Orbit Determination","type":"defense_stage","domain":"science","description":"A newly-found object's observations are reported to the Minor Planet Center, which links them into a single orbit. The more observations over a longer arc, the more precisely the future path is known.","entryPath":"/planetary-defense/orbit-determination"},{"id":"defense_stage:risk-assessment","name":"Risk Assessment","type":"defense_stage","domain":"science","description":"Judging how serious a possible impact is — its probability, the object's size and energy, and the time until the encounter — and expressing it on the Torino and Palermo scales so the risk can be understood and compared.","entryPath":"/planetary-defense/risk-assessment"},{"id":"defense_stage:risk-communication","name":"Risk Communication","type":"defense_stage","domain":"science","description":"Explaining a risk to decision-makers and the public accurately and without alarm — including retracting a warning when better data clears an object, as happened with Apophis. Clear communication is itself part of planetary defence.","entryPath":"/planetary-defense/risk-communication"},{"id":"risk_scale:palermo-scale","name":"The Palermo Scale","type":"risk_scale","domain":"science","description":"A more technical, logarithmic scale used by specialists to rank impact hazards against the background risk of a random impact of the same size over the same time. Values below zero mean a threat less than the everyday background; above zero warrants attention.","entryPath":"/planetary-defense/palermo-scale"},{"id":"risk_scale:torino-scale","name":"The Torino Scale","type":"risk_scale","domain":"science","description":"A 0–10 scale, like a hazard traffic light, for communicating the risk of a near-Earth object to the public — combining impact probability and energy into a single colour-coded number. Apophis briefly reached level 4, the highest ever, before further observations returned it to zero.","entryPath":"/planetary-defense/torino-scale"}]}